L’Uva Arbosiana Tournelle MAGNUM 2022

Uva Arbosiana Poulsard Domaine de la Tournelle, biodynamic wine, old vines of Poulsard or Ploussard, elegant, fruity, sublimely textured.  The Ploussard made from an indigenous variety of the same name.  It is Pinot Noir in character but with a more rustic and savoury bent. The fruit is grown on Jurassic marls and yields are very low at 40 hectolitres per hectare. The wine is then fermented using carbonic maceration (like Beaujolais) and refined for a short period in large ‘foudre’ barrels. No sulphur is added to the wine at any stage.  It retains its wild character from fermentation along with prickly red fruits and notes of forest mosses.  Uva Arbosiana Poulsard is delicious natural wine for the hearty food you get in the French mountains based on cheese, potatoes, bacon and charcuterie.  Doesn;t the Magnum look stunning?  The wine inside certainly is.

Evelyne Clairet owns 7 hectares in the region around Arbois, the famous wine growing capital of the Jura.

She farms biodynamically and follows Maria Thun's calender in all the operations.  At Tournelle they tend to use no sulphur at bottling, but sometimes add 2 or 3 grams per litre earlier in the wine making. Unlike many Jura producers, they are looking in general to avoid oxygen in most of their wines to keep the freshness of the fruit. Their wines are a combination of golden Chardonnay fruit and Jura minerals. They are linear and precise and have the most incredible texture of any Chardonnay we have tasted. Top Burgundy wines sell for incredible prices.  But in terms of quality, complexity and sheer pleasure in drinking, we have not come across many Chardonnay that rival the wines of Domaine de la Tournelle.  Their Savagnin is also of outstanding quality, and they make some fascinating and unique reds.